The FAQ Page
Some of these are questions that have been asked, while the rest are 'anticipatory'-type responses to the inevitable questions about the overhaul of the site.
I'm using Netscape 4.x or Explorer 4.x and the site looks terrible. What happened?
I'm using an older version of browser 'X' and the pages don't look correct. What's wrong?
I linked to a picture on your site, and the link is broken, how come?
Why is your 404 error page showing up in my site/forum/etc.?
Are you a professional photographer?
How did you make your image files so small?
How did you get your thumbnails to display as though they were arranged in a table?
Why don't you use icons for navigation like some other picture sites?
I like the big images - why not use them as the default image size?
The new site seems faster than the old site - is this my imagination?
I use Internet Explorer 6 - what happened to the toolbar curser?
I use Internet Explorer - what happened to the blue link rectangle?
What does fraon mean?
It is a gaelic word that means 'shelter in the mountains'.
Why did you change the site?
Mainly to give the site a new look since it was first put together in early 1999. Once I started, I used it as an opportunity to implement several 'wish list' items people have mentioned to me over the years.
I'm using Netscape 4.x, or Explorer 4.x, and the site looks terrible. What happened?
As part of the site re-design, all of the formatting information has been moved into css style sheets. Initially, I explored making the pages work in these older browsers, but gave up when it became too time consuming. Further, less than 0.1% of the traffic to the site is with those browsers, so the time investment just didn't provide the return. I did hide the css links on the pages so that users of 4.x browsers can still see the page content. The newer the browser, the better the pages will look.
I'm using an older version of browser 'X' and the pages don't look correct. What's wrong?
The pages have been formatted with CSS, and your browser is not interpreting the formatting correctly. The site logs show that less than 1% of site visitors use a browser that has problems interpreting the CSS used on this site, so the time investment to add workarounds just didn't provide the return. Also, the number of site users using these older browsers is decreasing every month. I'd like to recomend the latest versions of Opera or Firefox as OS independent browsers that will work with the site, and have modest file sizes for download.
I linked to a picture on your site, and the link is broken. Why?
Along with the site re-design came a new file structure. The image you linked to is still here, but it's in a different place. Consider using the Site Map or the Site Search pages to find that missing picture.
Why is your 404 error page showing up in my site/forum/etc.?
You or someone else 'hot-linked' to an image in the site, and the file structure changed as part of the re-design. Since the fraon.com server cannot find the old image location, it returns the error message.
Are you a professional photographer?
No.
How did you make your image files so small?
I use the file compression utility found in the Macromedia Fireworks software. The images are saved as progressive jpegs with an 80% compression setting, and the thumbnails are done as jpegs with a 70% compression setting. I process the images in Photoshop and save as a Photoshop file. I then use the 'batch' feature in Fireworks to convert all the images in a particular folder from Photoshop format to jpegs with the desired compression.
How did you get your thumbnails to display as though they were arranged in a table?
The short answer is that I used nested div's and played with the margin settings. I searched and found some nuggets of wisdom that I used to create my solution. Unfortunately, the solutions I found were all for thumbnails that have the same height and width dimension, and I have both landscape and portrait thumbnails. Since I wanted the thumbnails to display with their centers aligned across the width of the display window, I added a 'margin-top' value for each of the landscape thumbnails. The value was driven by the portrait thumbnails and is determined by (height-width)/2. So, for a 130 pixel high by 86 pixel wide thumbnail, the 'margin-top' value would be (130-86)/2 or 22 pixels. Make sure the 'margin-top' value is equal to zero for the portrait thumbnails in a given row, and set the 'margin-top' value for the remaining landscape thumbnails to 22 pixels. Voila - all the thumbnails in that row vertically align on center.
Why don't you use icons for navigation like some other picture sites?
I wanted to move completely away from using images for navigation. Text is easier to edit, and helps me create pages with small file sizes that download faster.
I like the bigger images - why not use them as the default image size?
Bandwidth - not everyone has a fast connection. Also, I've had several broadband users comment they like the small pages because they 'pop' onto their screens.
The new site seems faster than the old site - is this my imagination?
No, the small pages on the new site are considerably smaller than comparable pages on the old site. The reduction in file size came about by using CSS formatting instead of nested tables to position and format the page contents, eliminating the use of javascript and images for navigation, and moving the remaining javascript into an external file. Go here for more information about the change in page file sizes.
I use Internet Explorer 6 - what happened to the toolbar curser?
I added an instruction to the pages that eliminated it. I had talked to several users, and done some research, and found that most folks found it annoying. Apologies if you are not one of these users.
I use Internet Explorer - what happened to the blue link rectangle?
I added an instruction to the pages that eliminated it because *I* found it annoying...
Can I link to your site?
Yes, though you might want to tell me which page you have linked to in case I decide to change the site file structure in the future. This information will allow me to put in a page re-direct for you.